Introduction

Timing is everything in the industry! One moment, one smartphone is being praised with acclaim, and the next, another newer smartphone is taking the spotlight – seemingly taking away the fanfare surrounding the previous one. Well folks, that’s exactly what’s going on in the space right now, as the iPhone 5s arrived on the scene a week ago, only to be challenged by the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 this week. Heading into that crucial holiday time frame, there’s no arguing that these two are vying for business from consumers, so let’s dissect them both to find out how they perform against one another.

Design

Honestly, there’s nothing really new with the designs of both, as the iPhone 5s recycles the design of its predecessor – while the Note 3 receives a subtle redesign with its faux-leather rear casing. Regardless of that, it’s the iPhone 5s that continues to have the premium attachment with its design, which is mainly attributed to its sturdier brushed aluminum casing. Although Samsung mixes it up with a new textured rear casing, accented by the stitched pattern around the sides, the Note 3 is still a plastic device at heart, which doesn’t have the same luxury feel as the iPhone 5s. And when it comes to size, there’s no arguing that the iPhone 5s is considerably more form fitting in the hand and less taxing in the pockets than the ginormous Note 3.

Diving deeper into their arsenal, we really need to point out the Note 3’s extensive offerings – it’s just packed to the roof with so many goodies. Specifically, it features an IR blaster that turns it into a universal remote, the S Pen stylus for precise interaction with the Note 3, and a removable rear cover that grants us access to its battery and microSD card slot. There are still many other small details too, like its microUSB 3.0 port that exemplifies its features set. In contrast, the most noteworthy thing coming along with the iPhone 5s is its new biometric Touch ID finger print sensor, which is accurate and provides us with yet another security option.

Display

Going off their size, it’s a battle between big and small in the comparison again, as the Note 3’s 5.7” display easily dwarfs the iPhone 5s’ 4” display. Heck, the entire body of the iPhone 5s can fit within the Note 3’s display by itself! To be exact, it’s a 4-inch 640 x 1136 Retina Display on the iPhone 5s, and a significantly larger 5.7-inch 1080 x 1920 (1080p) Super AMOLED screen in the Note 3. Naturally, the detail superiority goes to the Note 3, but it’s only evident when we look at the two very closely – just because our eyes can’t tell the difference from a normal distance.

Each has their strengths and weakness, naturally, but when it comes to outdoor visibility, it’s the iPhone 5s that continues to be the winner. And when it comes to colors, the iPhone 5s’ display produces the more realistic colors – whereas it’s over saturated on the Note 3 in the default mode. Putting these two side-by-side in a store, though, we certainly feel that the Note 3 would get more looks due to its iridescent glow and sharp looks.

Furthermore, it’s worth mentioning that there’s more tech involved with the Note 3’s display. In fact, it’s able to track our finger, or the S Pen, while we’re hovering it over the display. It definitely has some benefits, like in the web browser, where the S Pen is able to mimic the function of a mouse cursor.

The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.

The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance (balance between red, green and blue) across different levels of grey (from dark to bright). The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones, the better.

Phonearena shouldnt be allowed to review iPhones... too much of a bias going on there... Pound for Pound a complete mismatch The Note 3 is also quite easy to use but not for your average grandpa (you got your iPhone for that) its unfair to be comparing to iPhone which is such a small phone that desperately needs a redesign. A marketing gimmick is what the iPhone is...

I agree 100% John V's reviews are no longer valid. not because I favor Samsung over Apple but because the Reviews are inconsistent. PA has been reporting on the ugliness of iOS7 and in this review John v states

"iOS 7 is simply more precise and pays more attention to the smallest of details, while TouchWiz continues to look cartoony by comparison."

Overlapping and inconsistent text formats PA has been reporting all day and John V makes this statement. this is the third drop of the ball by John and to me his reviews are invalid because they contradict the reporting here ( PA is speaking out of both sides of its mouth).

Lol i had enough of IPHONEARENA, stating the iphone as 'premium' because after one month your aluminium crap get brushed on the face and then it looks so premium lol Puke review again. Comparing a phablet and a small ass iphone and says the iphone fits more comfortably lol Hello noobs, as if you didn't know the Note 3 is a phablet. Instead of your puke review you should have stated that the Note 3 is an amazing job by samsung for making a bigger screen and keeping the size of the phablet unlike the SAME crap for the iphone!! And noobs when comparing screen, you must state also when watching videos on the smartphones. Because there is a BIG difference in details when watching full HD or HD videos on a bigger screen like 4.7> than the small ass screen of iphone. Concerning IOS 7, its a good job to begin with by apple but its still far away from Android. Congrats again Iphonearena for showing us your stupidity :D

yes agree but dont say the iphone is great in terms of quality. And atleast samsung change the back cover. Now time will tell which is better. Am not a samsung fan. But you can see this review is biased. There are other reviews by Iphonearena itself where it critises the Ios7. I dont say the iphone 5S is not a good phone but am bored with the same thing each year. If you consider fingerprint scanner as useful you can buy it.

No, big deal with plastic. Only Lame a$$ iFans like you hates it. And those Letters on the back of each Sammy's latest flagship phones doesn't fade. LOL. But that Aluminum gets fade after one month of use. LOL!! Truth hurts iSheeeep!

You say that after a month aluminum scratch. But after a fall of Note 3 that cheap plastic and fake leather breaks, is a phablet should have more speed all phones, the iPhone 5S exceeded the speed. There is this garbage you say, overcame the S4 and Note 3 and Note uses this trick to change their outcome. IF the Note 3 is better should have better camera, better screen resolution HTC One has more pixels and the Sony Z1 beats on camera, and also not much unlike the Note 2, where this evolution, and your criticisms iOS 7, but samsung does not have its own OS, Android uses, as does other brands of phones, and android has many malwares that the President of the USA said that if they could improve on that, I wonder in what sense it is better Note only different is bigger screen but does not have the best resolution of the cell, ok have a pen but you say is a phablet and you can open two windows the only difference, and if you want bigger screen for that is what made Apple the iPad, but good Samsung is so good it is at number 8 of the top brands, I forget that Apple is in first place and sold 9 million iPhones in 3 days when Samsung takes more than 3 months.

Dude why are talking about HTC and Sony z1? Its a comparison between note 3 and isame here. And when did i criticize the IOS7. I mentioned its a good job by apple. But it still lacks easiness of Android. Samsung and others do not have their own OS but thhey use better OS than apple. I TOTALLY AGREE with you that Android has malwares. Thats why apple is able to sell more iphones in America. And my son leather breaks? lol Did you miss that part when i said the Note 3 is a phablet comparing with isame? Concerning display resolution dude note 3 may not be the best but it is way better than the iphone :) Oh you mean you put the apple ipad in your pocket and use it as a phone? > what i am trying to say is ATLEAST Samsung did a good job by putting a bigger display, in the same compact body. Unlike your isame :) thats called an EFFORT. And let me correct you Apple is not in the first place because of iphone only. Dont try to be an inoob. I dont have any problem with apple. I have used an iphone 4S and was satisfied that time. But i do not agree with this totally biased comparison. You can see John trying to hide the disadvantages of isame here infront of the note 3. Dont talk nonsense, i am here for innovation and good product whether it is apple or samsung or others.

But in the benchmarks, the iPhone 5S already surpassed in speed and performance are in some youtube videos and think that the Note 3 is a samsung phablet and tricks used to manipulate the results but the iphone win.

seriously ?? Youtube on iphone 5s?! maybe if you squint! .. Who looks at benchmarks before buying a phone?? Apple never did it, They dont need to do it. not like my grandpa would want to know how fast the iphone runs.. kekeke it just works yeh

hahaha, this made me laugh so hard I made an account just to comment. Stupid Amoled display vs retina? Come on! Note 3 has a 1080p display vs iPhone 640p, that's not even hd. ok, iphones retina display has a pixel density of 326, that's good, but the Note has a pixel density of 386 and a 1,7 inches bigger screen. Fingerprint scanner is cool, can't argue with that, but the S Pen is really good too. iPhone 5s has a Dual-core 1,3 Ghz processor... man, Note 3 has a gigantic 2,3 GHz Quad Core or an 1,9 Quad Core and a 1,3 Quad Core. The iPhone has a good camera, yes, but if you say that the camera is better just cause of a flash, man you're cheap... GET YOUR FACT STRAIGHT!!!

If the Note 3 screen would be as small as the iPhone 5s screen (4 inches), the pixel density would be 550 dpi, when the iPhone 5s would only have 228 at a size of the Note 3 (5,7 inches) so you can tell me witch one has the betetr screen... So don't you argue with facts you don't know ANYTHING of. You might think I am a Android fan, but the reason I am saying this is 'cause you argue without knowing a crap of what you are talking about.

Your comparison is completely irrelevant, and total nonsense. That a given resolution would have a higher or lower ppi at different screen sizes is obvious, but you get no meaningful information from the comparison you mentioned.

Next to the Z Ultra, the Note 3 looks like a phone. Next to the Z Ultra, a box of twelve-guage double-ought-buck shells looks like a phone. You risk giving yourself a concussion slapping that tinted dual-pane window upside your head. It's the only phone I know of that has a UV protection rating. The only phone that will increase the energy efficiency of your house. I heard California passed a law to keep people from using the Ultra as a windshield on their Hummers. I hear it comes with a set of earphones, along with a squeegee and a bucket. If you search for accessories on Amazon, you have to choose with or without valance and sheers. Once I saw a guy talking on his ultra, and I thought he was being attacked by an oddly rectangular face-hugger from Aliens. The reason they made the Ultra water-proof was because people kept building aquariums out of them.

Tell me dear friend, how is a 1,3 Dual core better than a 2,3 Quad core. How is 1 GB RAM better than 3 GB RAM? The fact is that the Note 3 has a better processor AND 3 times more RAM. The Note 3 is alot faster.

Man, you really have no idea what you're talking about. The number of cores and the clock speed of those cores is only part of the equation. The iPhone 5s IS faster than the Note 3, the proof is in the benchmarks. It's also worth noting that Samsung programs their phones to cheat benchmarks, they were caught doing it with the gs4 and they're still doing it with the note 3. Even with the cheating, the 5s was still faster on the benchmarks. You can read all about it on Anandtech (you actually have a lot of reading to do, as you clearly have no idea what you're talking about).

Actually YOU have no idea. Let's dig in. The benchmarks that Samsung supposedly cheated on were lame tests that are suppose to show real world usage. Which means the hardware is suppose to perform based on real usage. So example...The Sun Spider test isn't about hardware. It's a Java rendering engine that is coded in the browser. APPLE has a better engine to handle java coding, but side by side tests show Samsung browser loads java faster due to faster clock speeds. AntuTu is also based on Web browsing. Side by side tests still show that Samsung was faster. That is real world...not some benchmark.

Next. What Samsung and others did is not chearing. In the test, Samsung used a scrip that white listed some benchmarking apps. When this app is used, it triggers the script. All the scrip did was force all the cores to run at their full clock speed. This isn't cheating. Bec on the GS4 and other devices, any app that takes up the full screen does this.

Next in the bench marks the with graphics, the Note 3 kills the 5S. What you didn't consider is the Note 3 is pushing a full HD display vs iPhone which isn't even 720P. Sure one test show offline mode where it forces the gpu to run full 1080. When the script was not used, Samsung still won...it was simply much closer.

You need to actually go look at the test.
As far as phone is really faster? If you actually take benchmarks seriously then your argument is already lost. Side by side tests have show the Galaxy devices have burned every model of the iPhone to the ground
Even the very first Galaxy S killed the iPhone 3GB in side by side comparison.

If you want to use your little 4" lame duck iPhone...found ahead. However specs don't mean mich. What does matter is what they are used for.

Look at the Note. I can multi - task lots of apps on the same screen at the same rime. In fact I can open over 15 instances of apps and still play a full hd movie on the screen and it still won't studder. Try tgat on tgat one app at a time iPhone. If u really think the iPhone is batter bec it was a couple tests than you are clueless.

The Note is all around better even without considering soecs. 1880p is better than 640p. 5.7" is better than 4". The camera is better to a point I can record 4 video and more. Be quiet now!!!!!

Techiexp1969 is right . By the way even if apple had better phones they are designed for old lady's you can't do anything on them where as to android the world is yours apple is lame and plane. What's the point of a super hi tech phone if u are limited to what you can do (apple) samsung put it where it counts as to apple makes it better by stupid things like a better speaker or simple stuff. Hell you can't even take ur battery out or add storage let alone I'm doing this while I have YouTube open and playing also Facebook open in the corner 3 things at once all able to control on the same screen. You got sacked in with the rest of the world to the most over rated phone ever

former iPhone user, 2years Note1 + Note8 user....how can be iPhone as productive as any Note...i am just emailing noting, anotating things in matter of second....would never be able on iPhone. Iphone = just good for playing music.

Cue the comments that phone arena is biased towards the iPhone even though there is an article (published moments ago) pointing out the many bugs found in iOS7 (that Android users are revelling in i might add) *sigh*.

Obviously the iPhone will take the victory here, its the better device :-) The Nexus 5 on the other hand, that will be a good battle..

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